The water/ignition thing was sorted in the '60. BMC fitted a moulded cover over the top of the distributor. Maybe Rover or whoever forgot all this. I vaguely recall see a later model with just a splash guard

I drove X000's of miles in vans and saloons, apart from the heel of the points wearing once, never had a problem. Apart from rust, pretty much all over.

Pretty easy to work on if you have thin arms and flexible joints. Remember, they were designed in an era where far more maintenance was the norm, and heaters were an optional extra. Radios were pointless as the engine/gear/road/wind noise drowned them out.

As per my earlier post, I bought my Mini new in December 1970 and the wet ignition problem was still present then, so it wasn't fixed in the 1960s.

I bought the Mini 1000, which came with a heater as standard. However, it was still an extra on the 850, but the salesman said you can only get one without a heater by special order and they were virtually impossible to get hold of, so it was really a ploy to advertise them at a lower figure in "Prices from £...." Has anyone had or even seen a Mini without a heater?

They didn't have a place for radios as the designer, Sir Alec Issigonis, didn't like them in cars. Can you imagine something customers want being omitted from a new design today on the whim of the designer?

A problem I had that I didn't mention before was when the car was about 18 months old, it suddenly went dead as I was driving along. Nothing would work, not even the interior light. The problem was that the battery was in the boot and the cables had chaffed under the car. When the insulation wore through to the cable, it shorted everything out! Back then, there was only 12 months warranty, so I was left with the bill for repairing it.